31Oct2018 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street Pointing To A 1% Higher Opening, DOW Set To Rise More Than 200 Points, GM Shares Jump On Earnings, Dollar Index Little Changed At 96.997

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are sharply higher today with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 2.27% while London’s FTSE 100 is up 1.58% and Germany’s DAX is up 1.44%.

GM profit races past expectations, sees strong full year

General Motors Co on Wednesday posted far stronger-than-expected quarterly profit and said its full-year earnings forecast would come in at the high end of its forecast due to strong demand in North America, driven by its new pick-up trucks.

Airbus says tougher to meet jet delivery goal after snags

European planemaker Airbus softened its key target for jet deliveries on Wednesday and warned that reaching it would be a “greater stretch” after a sequence of industrial problems.

Airbus in talks to unjam some HNA, Emirates deliveries: sources

Airbus faces new headaches delivering A330s to airlines tied to China’s HNA Group amid scarce financing and is in separate talks with Emirates over the timing of undelivered A380 superjumbos as it tries to soften the decline of two key long-haul models.

After tragedies and big losses, Hyundai looks to reverse North Korea fortunes

For Hyundai, the South Korean conglomerate, North Korea has been a story of lost opportunities – and tragedy.

How the U.S. midterm elections could ripple through markets

Gridlock, Blue Sweep or Red Repeat? Wall Street is closely watching the U.S. midterm Congressional elections next week, as policy decisions that could sway the economy, corporate decision-making and consumer spending hinge on the results.

Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources

SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk flew to the Seattle area in June for meetings with engineers leading a satellite launch project crucial to his space company’s growth.

Shares bounce as bulls fight back after brutal October

Stock markets bounced on Wednesday, bringing some relief after a brutal October in which equities have suffered one of their worst drops in a decade and spooked investors.

Anthem profit beats as insurer reins in costs

Anthem Inc reported quarterly profit that beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, helped by lower costs at its commercial insurance business and the company raised its full-year adjusted earnings forecast.

Barnes & Noble countersues ex-CEO it fired after alleged harassment

Barnes & Noble Inc on Tuesday filed a countersuit seeking damages from the former chief executive officer it fired in part because of claims he sexually harassed a female employee.

“We’re Back In The Real World Where Bad News Is Bad News”: To $1 Trillion Fund Manager, Turmoil Is “New Normal”

For nearly a decade stocks enjoyed an environment of unprecedented bullishness, where good news was good news, and bad news was even better as it suggested central bank intervention via monetary stimulus, boosting asset prices. But that is no longer the case according to the head of Natixis SA’s $1 trillion asset-management arm who says that volatile equity markets are the “new normal.”

“We’re back to the basics: risk on, risk off,” Jean Raby, CEO of Natixis Investment Managers, said in an interview Tuesday at the Canada Fintech Forum in Montreal. “Over the past several years, in a way, bad news was good news because it meant a more accommodating monetary policy. Now we’re in the real world where bad news is bad news, and good news may not be such great news.”

The good news, according to Raby is that for now at least, the fundamental “bad news” is not quite as bad as markets have made it out in the past month, stressing that no single region is in contraction and emerging markets contagion from Turkey and Argentina is probably “overstated.”

“I have to believe, when I look at the fundamentals, that we are still on pretty sound footing.”

Natixis Investment, which is controlled by Groupe BPCE, France’s second-biggest bank, warned earlier this year that a global sell-off could hit its asset-management business, although higher volatility could benefit its trading operations.

While the recent Saudi turmoil has moved away from the front pages, Raby was asked about the longer-term impact on investment in Saudi Arabia, saying it’s too early to tell.

“It’s difficult for me to comment on where the future is going specifically for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said. “In the Middle East we have a relative …

ADP Employment Jumps Most In 8 Months, Small Business Struggles

Following September’s big disappointment in BLS data (95k below ADP’s print), October saw no relenting in ADP’s exuberance with a better than expected +227k (vs +187k exp).

September’s +229k spike was revised down to +218k making October’s +227k print the best since February

Under the hood, small business rose the least with no cohorts seeing net job losses…

“Despite a significant shortage in skilled talent, the labor market continues to grow,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.

“We saw signi …

GM Soars 10% After Beating Dramatically Lowered Earnings Bar

General Motors stock is soaring in the pre-market after smashing earnings expectations (the 14th straight quarterly beat) and hinting that full-year earnings may be at the high end of the range that it has forecast.

In boosting adjusted profit to $1.87 a share, GM beat dramatically lowered expectations that earnings would slip from a year earlier and overcame global auto sales leveling off (with China deliveries plunging 15% YoY).

Bloomberg highlights the following key insights:

GM’s sales in the U.S. have been down slightly this year and dropped 15 percent in China in the quarter, so expectations for this report were low.

The automaker also said that it expects profit for the year to hit the high end of its previous guidance, which was for between $5.80 and $6.20 a share. Earnings could even beat $6.20 a share depending on “macro factors,” spokesman Tom Henderson told reporters at the company’s headquarters in Detroit.

Slower retail sales didn’t hurt GM’s performance. In the U.S., the automaker continues to sell more expensive models. New sport utility vehicles including the Chevrolet Traverse and Equinox have been selling well and commanding be …

Six Scary Charts To Keep Investors Up At Night This Halloween

Authored by Laura Frost via BondVigilantes.com,

If you are looking for something really scary this Halloween, there is no need to reach out for blockbuster thrillers or monster figures – just look at these six spooktacular financial charts.

This generation looks different

US Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell recently warned about the ever-increasing amount of US student debt outstanding: “You do stand to see longer-term negative effects on people who can’t pay off their student loans. It hurts their credit rating, it impacts the entire half of their economic life.”

Student debt also impacts the overall economy: as graduates seek to repay their loans, they are forced to make concessions to their financial consumption, leading to an ever-growing drag on the economy. They buy fewer goods and services and are delayed in joining the housing ladder, with many choosing (or having) to rent instead. On top of this, student debt sees the highest 90+ day delinquency rate of all US consumer credit.

The anaconda …

Market Extra: ‘Godfather’ of chart analysis says ‘damage done to the stock market’ is much, much worse’ than anyone is talking about

Prominent market technician Ralph Acampora says that the stock market is in bad shape and it’s worse than many Wall Street investors appreciate.

Key Words: Housing market now ‘reminds me of 2006,’ Robert Shiller says

As home-price gains moderate and sales slow, Nobel-winner and housing data-cruncher Robert Shiller thinks it looks a lot like 2006, just before a housing crisis became a financial crisis that brought the country to its knees.

Need to Know: Here’s the ominous message tech companies sent to investors in October

Happy last day of a tough month. But don’t expect an easy ride in November, and our call of the day says there is one more reason to worry about stocks in the most beaten-down sector.